MADRID
A Spanish nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid has become the first person to have caught the virus within Europe, Spanish media has reported.
The infected woman was reported Monday to be one of several nurses who attended to Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who, together with another missionary, had been brought to Spain from Sierra Leone on September 22 after contracting the virus.
Two tests conducted on the nurse since Monday morning both proved positive, according to media sources within the country's health ministry.
Ebola -- a contagious disease for which there is no known cure -- has killed about 3,400 people in West Africa in recent months, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.
Symptoms of the disease include a fever higher reaching up to 38 degrees centigrade, headache, nausea and diarrhea or abdominal pain.
Victims take up to 21 days to show symptoms and infect the host, but the virus cannot be transmitted before the host becomes ill.
www.aa.com.tr/en
